The Federal Court has disqualified former Star Entertainment Group Limited executives Mathias Bekier and Paula Martin from managing corporations for six and seven years respectively and ordered them to pay pecuniary penalties for breaching their duties by failing to properly manage serious risks at one of Australia's major casinos.
The Court ordered:
- Mr Bekier, the former Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, to pay a pecuniary penalty of $700,000 and disqualified him from managing corporations for six years.
- Ms Martin, the former General Counsel, Company Secretary, and Chief Legal and Risk Officer, to pay a pecuniary penalty of $400,000 and disqualified her from managing corporations for seven years.
His Honour also ordered that Mr Bekier and Ms Martin pay 45% of ASIC's costs of the proceeding.
The Court previously found that both Mr Bekier and Ms Martin breached their duties owed to Star Entertainment in relation to their handling of the risks associated with money laundering and criminal activity.
ASIC Chair Sarah Court said, 'senior executives have a critical responsibility to identify, escalate and properly manage serious risks within their organisations.
'These failures occurred in a highly regulated environment and contributed to significant governance breakdowns at Star.
'Penalties of this scale reflect the seriousness of their conduct and send a strong message to other senior executives of listed companies that failures of this type are unacceptable.'
ASIC has an enduring enforcement priority focused on governance and directors' duties failures.
In relation to Mr Bekier, His Honour Justice Lee said:
'Senior executives of casino operators, and public companies conducting enterprises pregnant with risks more broadly, must understand that failures of the kind established by the contraventions may attract substantial personal consequences.'
Further, in respect of Ms Martin he found that 'the community is entitled to expect that a solicitor occupying such positions and having such responsibilities, within one of Australia's largest casino operators, will display professional independence, accuracy and judgment of a high order. The conduct established ... represented a very serious departure from those standards' and that
'Ms Martin knew of a miscellany of alarming information pertaining to [an overseas gambling junket] ... She was required to report such matters to the Board but failed to do so. This is all the more concerning when considered against the backdrop of Ms Martin being the most senior solicitor employed by Star'; and that
'The more pervasive the failures of governance and culture become, the greater the obligation upon those entrusted with legal and risk responsibilities to insist upon compliance with legal obligations and proper standards of corporate conduct'.
